Location

Financial repression refers to Government measures to artificially depress interest rates in order to reduce the burden of debtors, at the expense of creditors, and is typically associated with negative real yields, as seen today. The Financial Repression Working Party will present on historic precedents for governments using financial repression to liquidate their debt. We will then examine the current economic situation and debate what this means for our clients including:

Location

This discussion will be delivered by an experienced ALM actuary, Gary Lam (FIA) from KPMG UK. This event is suitable for all life actuaries and students who are interested in ALM modelling or have experiences in Prophet and ALM.

The event will be held simultaneously in Beijing, Shanghai, Shengzhen, Hong Kong. The presentation will be delivered live in Shanghai and by video conference in the other cities.

Location

This session is suitable for actuaries working in any area (ie it is not specifically aimed at Life, GI or any other technical discipline).

Come along prepared to take part and say what you think!

Why is professional skills training important?

What are the principles in the Actuaries' Code (and what is the difference between acting honestly and acting with integrity)?

What sorts of situations can arise in practice? We will watch and discuss some of the video material available on the IFoA website:* Let's be realistic here (Life)* Unknown unknowns (GI)* Losing the plot (general)

This session will qualify for one hour’s Professional Skills CPD (two hours are needed annually under new rules from 1 July 2013).

This session will be similar to that run at GIRO (October 2013) and the Life Conference (November 2013) and that to be run at the forthcoming Highlights of the Life Conference sessions (March 2014). We will also be running some different sessions using different videos in the period from March to June 2014.

Event Timings:

08.45 - 09.00: Registration

09.00 - 10.00: Presentation

Speakers:

Neil Hilary and Patrick Cleary (members of the Professionalism Content Development Working Group)

Location

Membership Director Memoria Lewis will be in Shanghai talking to our members about what the IFoA are doing to support you and the benefits that IFoA are providing and intend to provide in the future. Memoria would also be very keen to learn more about what our members need from us to help you in your future careers and what you value as a member already.

Location

Critical Illness cover is a mainstay of the UK health insurance marketplace. Credible insured experience continues to emerge for the major conditions but this does not help us to understand the minor conditions, changes in definitions over time or socio-economic variations in experience. Members of the Critical Illness Definitions and Geographical Variations Working Party will present the analysis of a dataset of seriatim NHS hospital records. Although the presentation may be of interest to actuaries who are just starting to price Critical Illness cover for the first time, we believe that experienced pricing actuaries will find its conclusions interesting.

The presentation is based on a recently published paper which is now available.

Location

Removing risk and progressing towards the end of a pension scheme’s journey can be a technical and time-consuming business for companies and scheme trustees. On occasion, the end of the pension scheme can be outside of the trustees’ control and entry to the Pension Protection Fund becomes inevitable. In any case, as pensions actuaries, our clients and/or employers look to us for guidance.

This seminar will present a variety of views from industry experts on the end game, looking at past experience through case studies and considering possible future developments.

Location

Economic growth has received significantly more attention globally over the last few years. While traditional growth has been very visible though the consumption of resources, the resources required to sustain the current level of economic growth may not be available over the next decades. Contraints on available resources, and any associated political interventions, may limit global economic growth over the upcoming decades.

The IFoA commissioned research on this topic. "Resource constraints: sharing a finite world. Implications of limits to growth", was published in 2013 and covers the consequences of Limits to Growth in the broadest context. Its findings are relevant to the work of actuaries in every technical discipline. The presentation will highlight some of the evidence presented in the report and the implications for actuaries.

Simon Jones is a Senior Investment Consultant with Hymans Robertson LLP and a member of the IFoA's newly formed Resource and Environment Board.

Location

This session is suitable for actuaries working in any area (i.e. it is not specifically aimed at Life, Pensions or any other technical discipline).

Come along prepared to take part and say what you think!

Why is professional skills training important?

What are the principles in the Actuaries' Code (and what is the difference between acting honestly and acting with integrity)?

What sorts of situations can arise in practice? We will watch and discuss some of the video material available on the IFoA website:

Let's be realistic here (Life)

Looking after one of your own (Pensions)

Losing the plot (General)

This session will qualify for one hour’s Professional Skills CPD (two hours are needed annually under new rules from 1 July 2013).

This session will be similar to that run at GIRO (October 201f3) and the Life Conference (November 2013) and that to be run at the forthcoming Highlights of the Life Conference sessions (March 2014). We will also be running some different sessions using different videos in the period from March to June 2014.

Location

Trilogue agreement on the Long Term Guarantee package in early December 2013, in conjunction with the reset go live date for the Solvency II Directive of 1 January 2016 contained in Quick Fix 2, has put Solvency II back on the regulatory agenda for insurers.

Peter Heffernan and Scott McNeill (PwC) will provide an overview of key timeline and key challenges and explore the implications of the main components of the long term guarantee package for insurers.

What are the principles in the Actuaries' Code (and what is the difference between acting honestly and acting with integrity)?

What sort of situations can arise in parctice?

We will watch and discuss some video material available on the IFoA website:

Let's be realistic here (Life)

Unknown unknowns (GI)

Losing the plot (general)

This meeting is suitable for actuarial members working in any area (i.e. it is not specifically aimed at Life, GI or any other technical discipline.This session will qualify for one hour's Professional Skills CPD (two hours are needed annually under new rules from 1 July 2013 for most members)

If you would like to attend this meeting please contact Oliver Smith (oliver.p.smith@uk.pwc.com) by 10 February 2014 to book a place.

Location

This is to inform members that the IFoA's Finance and Investment Board are sponsoring this event specifically aimed at promoting discussion of how actuaries can pursue a career path towards becoming CIOs.

The format will be an informal discussion with people drawn predominantly from actuaries who already work in CIO or similar roles across different types of firm (e.g. Insurance Companies, Pension Funds, Asset Managers, Investment Consultancies and Retail Wealth Management firms).

Attendees will be invited to share their thoughts on what it takes to succeed as a CIO and how to navigate their career path to become a CIO. But also more importantly will be invited to engage with this Finance and Investment Boards' initiative to promote more actuaries in becoming CIOs.

The idea is to both publicise this career path to our members, but also to showcase to employers how the actuarial skillset is very well suited to filling the role of a CIO. Thus enabling the IFoA raise the profile of CIO's.

This event is by invitation only. Please note that following this event, members will be updated on the outcome.

This session will qualify for two hours of Professional Skills CPD (two hours are needed annually under new rules from 1 July 2013).

This session is made up of a combination of the material from the London sessions of 11 February 2014 and 2 April 2014. It contains the video material used at GIRO (October 2013), the Life Conference (November 2013) and the Highlights of the Life Conference sessions (March/April 2014).

Scotland becoming an independent country would have a significant impact on financial services, including pensions and insurance, the regulation of the sector and its future growth. Whether a referendum results in an independent Scotland or not, it is important that discussion about how change could affect Scotland takes place. IFoA is therefore pleased to organise a public debate on the implications of Scottish independence for financial services in Scotland and across the UK. We are delighted to announce a distinguished panel of speakers:

Chair: Bill Jamieson, The Scotsman

Rt Hon Alistair Carmichael MP, Secretary of State for Scotland

Gregg McClymont MP, Shadow Pensions Minister

Rachel Homes, Chartered Accountant and University Lecturer in Taxation, Accountancy and Finance, Member of Business for Scotland

John Swinney MSP, Cabinet Secretary for Finance, Employment and Sustainable Growth, Scottish Government

Who should attend?

This is a free event and we welcome all who are interested in the topic to register to attend. The topic of discussion will be important for all actuaries and those working across financial services and the wider business community. We also welcome guests from other sectors of the economy and members of the public who are interested to hear the views of our distinguished panel of speakers.

The frequency and severity of humanitarian disasters is expected to continue to grow in the coming years and at an accelerated pace. The impacts of disasters are far and wide, particularly in developing countries where financial markets and social safety net systems are less developed. Traditional mechanisms for risk management, such as selling assets at firesale prices, limiting caloric intake, and taking children out of school, can have long term consequences for livelihoods and economic growth. Developing country governments recognize that they have a responsibility to prepare for potential disasters but are increasingly asking questions like: Do governments get the most value for money investing in disaster reduction or financial protection? How should governments decide what their contingent liability to disasters is? What are the financial costs of preparing to do more in the aftermath of a disaster relative to the humanitarian and economic benefits? What role should budgetary and financial instruments like sovereign disaster reserve funds, lines of contingent credit, or market-based risk transfer products play in sovereign risk financing?

The Event:

To answer such questions the UK Department for International Development (DFID), the World Bank (WB) and the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR) has assembled a team of actuaries, GI specialists and academics for a three-year project to better understand the impact and efficiency of different financial protection strategies. Bringing in specialists from development economics, public finance, micro and macroeconomics, and disaster risk modelling, this event will explain why the problem is fundamentally actuarial, how it is being approached, and will go on to present the findings from the conceptual phase of the project.

For more information about the project please see the project 2-pager, and recent New York Times article.

Location

This OCF session explores the attributes and challenges of leadership in the context of personal and professional change. Led by Russell Borland and Thomas Chalmers of Leading Figures, this interative session will draw on the experience of actuaries and other professionals who have succeeded in recognising and embracing change as an essential component of their career progression.

During the session, Fraser Smart will share his personal leadership journey, describing his advancement from graduate to actuary to Managing Director of Buck Consultants. In addition, Russell will present the findings of his research into the characteristics of leadership across the broader finance and professional services sectors - the criteria applied, the challenges faced by individuals and the techniques used by individuals in effecting positive, personal change

Just five minutes’ walk from Oxford Circus tube (Central, Victoria and Bakerloo), Bond street (Jubilee) and a 10 minute walk from Great Portland Street tube (Circle, Hammersmith & City and Metropolitan) and Marlyebone station.